OT: Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book)

Tue May 5 07:30:15 MST 2009

bonus points for mises.org links!

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:28 PM, A. W. Wright <
diamondmagic at users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> (Since we are top-posting)
>
> In your opinion! I am more then happy to pay my $10 for 1/500th of a
> tree planted and harvested and processed by private companies on their
> own private property, or resources that would have been cut down and
> gone unused otherwise. We don't cut down rainforests for paper
> (rainforests are really only cut down for clearing land). <sarcasm>I
> mean, /everyone/ knows trees are /not/ renewable resources.</sarcasm>
> Companies have hundreds of thousands of acres of land just for trees, in
> New England where I lived, the land would be leased for tapping maple
> syrup among other things. What about the alternative? If people don't
> buy books, what would they be doing instead that might possibly be more
> harmful? I don't suppose anyone considered how many more times E-waste
> uses, and how harmful it is? Or some other activity other then
> reading/computing altogether?
>
> I happen to own (one) O'Reilly book (Firefox Hacks) and found it very
> useful. Fact is online references just can't replace printed
> instructional materials. For instance the book Man, Economy, and State,
> great publication available online at http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp
> and PDF with a cc-by license. I purchaced the book anyways, because the
> additional value I get from the printed version justifies the cost, for me.
>
> While we are on the subject of copyright, http://mises.org/story/2632 .
> Tagging OT. I often wonder which industries would be more or less
> successful without IP laws, and how the economy has evolved around it
> and been distorted by it. Perhaps the movie theater industry would exist
> (because contract law would still protect movies) but DVDs, which are
> the bulk of the profits, would be very different. Patents would no
> longer be a concern, since especially nowadays the cost of not
> innovating at all is still lower then the cost of innovating without a
> patent and the associated monopoly (or would be offset by the increased
> ability to use innovations you were previously not able to legally).
> Trademarks would still exist in some sense, since you wouldn't be able
> to claim it is a genuine X brand product (that would be fraud since you
> are not getting the product you were promised).
>
> Austin Wright.
>
> Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> > On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Alan Dayley <alandd at consultpros.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I don't understand the negativity around dead tree media.
> >>
> >
> >   The criticisms are complex.  Primarily, chopping down rain forests
> > to explain to someone how to write Perl is considered wasteful and
> > excessive[1].  Its obvious to anyone who is serious about development
> > that a few google queries rivals what you can find in any printed
> > technical manual ( for $69.95 ).  The core issue though is what I
> > mention elsewhere in this thread, currently there is no dependable way
> > to enforce compensation for authors other than print.  Where there is
> > no compensation, there is low or no quality.  Amazon has an
> > interesting initiative, the Kindle, but history has shown that all DRM
> > schemes will eventually be hacked- so its just a matter of time before
> > people are reading 'bootlegged' copy on their Kindles.  Secondly this
> > raises the familiar issues of the excesses of copyright.  As we begin
> > to rely more and more on legal authority in the realm of ideas, we
> > start to encounter more and more exploitation (ie. people copyrighting
> > chord progressions or yoga postures).  We have yet to find a practical
> > system that works and promotes innovation and art, obviously progress
> > needs to be made in understanding what factors are at stake here and
> > how to effectively address them.
> >
> >   -jmz
> >
> >  [1] Americans use more than 50 million tons of paper each year,
> > consuming more than 850 million trees
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>  It has many
> >> advantages, including ultimate portability and no dead batteries.  I
> >> currently have multiple O'Reilly books above my computer here, all of
> >> which I have actually used, some more than others.  My Linux Pocket
> >> Guide is an excellent reference.  There's just something about having
> >> three fingers between different sections of a book and flipping
> >> between them while learning!
> >>
> >> O'Reilly, as a company, has provided excellent support for
> >> Linux/FS/OSS with books and conferences and direct support for PLUG.
> >> Sure, it made good business sense for them to do it or they probably
> >> wouldn't but, that's OK because we both win.  O'Reilly is supporting
> >> new avenues of knowledge spreading with efforts like Ignite events
> >> (http://www.ignitephoenix.com)
> >>
> >> While I believe printed books will be come less and less important, I
> >> hope they don't go away completely.  And I have learned something from
> >> every O'Reilly book I own.  That they have a book named "favorite
> >> Linux book of all time" is another bonus to them.
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:02 PM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm not sure why I am bothering with this but I do happen to own many
> >>> dead tree edition computer books including many O'Reilly books but
> truth
> >>> be told, they are decorating my office by residing on shelves instead
> of
> >>> my desk so I think your characterization is slightly too narrow.
> >>>
> >>> It's also hard to ignore that O'Reilly actually has contributed stuff
> to
> >>> PLUG and has solicited the list for reviewers which makes me think that
> >>> the commentaries are overly harsh.
> >>>
> >>> Lastly, it is obvious that both Lisa and Joshua don't seem to care that
> >>> Gerald expressed a personal pride connection with this particular book
> >>> and I would like to ask Gerald what his connection was to "Linux in a
> >>> Nutshell?"
> >>>
> >>> Craig
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 18:39 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> agreed.  O'reilly = lame.  The price of those books is hardly worth
> >>>> the information in them.  They're mainly used for decorating the desks
> >>>> of poser developers.
> >>>>
> >>>>   -jmz
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 6:34 PM, Lisa Kachold <lisakachold at obnosis.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Snore!
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Bored with the under publishing of technical books, and over blown
> accolades
> >>>>> for the few available....
> >>>>>
> >>>>> O'Really now!
> >>>>> I own that book BTW (and the Unix in A Nutshell it was patterned afer
> was
> >>>>> well used too) but I find the actual sources of each distribution
> more
> >>>>> useful (man, cat /proc/cpuinfo, ls, find) than that book, which is
> far from
> >>>>> current or distro specific.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> big yawn with dreamy bleary eyes
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Gerald Thurman <nanofoo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Tim O'Reilly just tweeted this...
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Linux Journal Reader's Choice Awards: Linux in a Nutshell favorite
> Linux
> >>>>>> book of all time. I'm honored. http://bit.ly/hhTBH
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
>
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